Mao Zedong

Table of Contents

Introduction to Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 - September 9, 1976), the word Runzhi (the original Yongzhi, later changed to Runzhi), and the pen name Zi Ren. From Xiangtan, HuNan Province. The leader of the Chinese people, the great Marxist, the great proletarian revolutionist, strategist and theorist, the main founders and leaders of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people's Liberation Army and the people's Republic of China, the great pioneer of the Sinicization of Marxism, China's great patriots and national heroes in recent generations, The core of the first generation of central collective leadership of the Communist Party of China and a generation of great men who led the Chinese people to completely change their own destiny and the face of the country.

From 1949 to 1976, Mao Zedong served as the supreme leader of the people's Republic of China. His contributions to the development of Marxism Leninism, military theory and the theory of the Communist Party are called Mao Zedong thought. Because almost all of the main positions held by Mao Zedong were called chairman, he was also honored as "Chairman Mao".

Mao Zedong is regarded as one of the most important figures in modern world history, and Time magazine also rated him as one of the 100 most influential people in the 20th century.

Mao Zedong came from a peasant background

On December 26, 1893, Mao Zedong was born into a peasant family in Shangwuchang, Chongnan Bank, Shaoshan. He was named Zedong and his courtesy name was Yongzhi (later changed to Runzhi). Mao Zedong's grandfather, Mao Enpu, lived a life of poverty and was hardworking and generous. My father, Mao Yichang (styled Shunsheng), was originally a poor farmer who was forced to serve in the army for many years due to debt. Due to his strict governance and efficient management, the family developed from a poor farmer to a wealthy farmer. Mother Wen (Wen Qimei) is kind and helpful. Mao Zedong was the third child in his family. Due to the premature deaths of the first two babies, his mother was afraid that he would not grow up, so she took him to a small temple called Shi Guanyin on her side of the house, worshipped a giant stone, recognized him as a godmother, and even gave him a nickname, Shi San Ya Zi. Influenced by his father, Mao Zedong started doing some household chores and farm work from the age of six. After learning to read, he also helped his father keep accounts, especially during the period of about two years from the age of fourteen to fifteen, he worked in the fields all day long with the hired laborers at home.

Mao Zedong's Childhood Life

In his early childhood, Mao Zedong spent most of his days at his maternal grandparents’ home in Tangjiatuo, Xiangxiang County. Though his maternal grandfather’s family made a living by farming, one of his maternal uncles ran a private tutorial school, where Mao Zedong sometimes sat in to listen to lessons.

In 1902, at the age of eight, Mao Zedong was brought back to Shaoshan by his parents to attend an old-style private school and start his formal schooling. Before he turned sixteen, apart from a two-year break when he dropped out to work the family farm, he studied successively at six private schools around Shaoshan: Nan’an, Guangongqiao, Qiaotouwan, Zhongjiawan, Jingwanli, Wugujing and Dongmaotang.

He began his learning with popular primers for children, including Three-Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, Enlarged Collection of Adages and Young Scholar’s Jade Forest, through which he received traditional Confucian education. Later, he studied and recited the Four Books and Five Classics line by line under his tutors. He later summed up these years of private schooling as “six years with Confucius”.

While attending school, he had to herd cattle and collect manure early in the morning and after class, and join in harvesting crops during busy farming seasons.

Mao Zedong went out to study

In April 1910, a rice riot broke out in Changsha. The Qing government dispatched troops to suppress the uprising, leaving numerous famine-stricken people dead and injured. When news of the incident reached Shaoshan, Mao Zedong could not calm down for a long time. Years later, he claimed this event had shaped his entire life.

Meanwhile, Li Shuqing, a teacher advocating reformist ideas, spread reformist thinking in Shaoshan. After embracing these ideas, Mao Zedong yearned desperately to leave home for further schooling. It so happened that his cousin Wen Yunchang told him that Dongshan Higher Primary School under Xiangxiang County, fifty li away from Shaoshan, offered modern new learning curricula. The news greatly stirred his heart. He rejected his father’s plan to apprentice him at a rice shop, and successively asked his eighth maternal uncle Wen Yuqing, his paternal cousin Mao Luzhong, and another cousin Wang Jifan to persuade his father. Eventually, his father consented to let him pursue studies elsewhere.

Mao Zedong's Enlightenment of Thought

At Dongshan Higher Primary School of Xiangxiang County, Mao Zedong absorbed reformist ideas to a large extent. He once wrote political essays expounding his understanding of two state systems: constitutional monarchy and feudal autocracy. During this period, he shifted his faith from Confucius and Mencius to admiration for Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. He went from endorsing Zheng Guanying’s Words of Warning in a Prosperous Age to advocating constitutional reform modeled after Britain and Japan. This marked the first milestone in the evolution of his early ideological outlook.

In the spring of 1911, He Langang, a teacher at Dongshan Higher Primary School, was hired to teach at the Xiangxiang Provincial School in Changsha. Impressed by Mao Zedong’s outstanding academic performance, Teacher He offered to take him along to pursue studies there. Upon arriving in Changsha, Mao successfully passed the entrance examination for the Xiangxiang Provincial School.

While studying there, he came into contact with the propositions of the revolutionary faction. For the first time, he publicly voiced his political views on campus, voicing support for the revolutionaries’ platform to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and establish a Republic of China. He proposed that Sun Yat-sen serve as President, Kang Youwei as Premier of the Cabinet, and Liang Qichao as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also initiated and took the lead in cutting off his queue, as a complete break with the corrupt Qing government.

Mao Zedong joined the New Army

The Wuchang Uprising broke out on October 10, 1911. Representatives dispatched by the newly established Hubei Military Government rushed to Changsha, urging HuNan revolutionaries to stage an armed uprising in response at once. On October 24, revolutionaries in Changsha launched an armed revolt and founded the HuNan Military Government. Mao Zedong immediately joined the HuNan Revolutionary Army, serving as a private in the Left Company, 1st Battalion, 50th Regiment of the 25th Mixed Brigade of the HuNan New Army.

During his military service, apart from routine military training, he spent most of his monthly military pay subscribing to newspapers and buying books to keep abreast of current affairs and politics. Later, the revolutionary momentum surged nationwide. After the Qing Dynasty abdicated, Mao Zedong believed his purpose for enlisting had been fulfilled, so he resolved to leave the army and resume his studies. Altogether, he served six months in the HuNan New Army.

Mao Zedong continued his studies

Later, he successively applied for admission to a police academy, a soap-making school, a law and politics school, and a public senior school, yet none satisfied him. Eventually, he passed the entrance examination for the HuNan Provincial Higher Middle School (later renamed the First Provincial Middle School) with top marks. After studying there for half a year, he found the school’s rigid rules and limited curricula inferior to self-study, so he dropped out. He lodged at the Xiangxiang Guild Hall on Xin’an Lane in Changsha and spent every day studying independently at the HuNan Provincial Library.

During this period, he read extensively bourgeois democratic and modern scientific works from 18th- and 19th-century Western thinkers, including Rousseau’s The Social Contract and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. He was especially influenced by Yan Fu’s translations: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (rendered by Yan as Yuanfu), Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (Fayi), Thomas Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics (Tianyan Lun), and Herbert Spencer’s The Study of Sociology (Qunxue Siyan). Through these books, he received a systematic enlightenment education in modern Western ideology and culture. His father disapproved of this self-study lifestyle and refused to fund him further. Meanwhile, demobilized soldiers from Xiangxiang occupied the guild hall where he lived, prompting him to return to formal schooling.

In the spring of 1913, Mao Zedong enrolled in the five-year HuNan Provincial Fourth Normal School. The following spring, the Fourth Normal School merged into the HuNan Provincial First Normal School, and Mao was assigned to Class Eight. Since the Fourth Normal School started its academic year in spring while the First Normal School began in autumn, he repeated half a year of preparatory courses. He graduated from the First Normal School in the summer of 1918, having spent a total of five and a half years as a normal student.

While at school, influenced by progressive teachers including Yang Changji, he became an avid reader of the magazine New Youth and admired Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi. On April 14, 1918, together with Xiao Zisheng, He Shuheng, Cai Hesen and others, he founded the Xinmin Institute (Institute of New Citizens). He graduated from the HuNan Provincial First Normal School in June the same year.

Mao Zedong's Contact and Understanding of Marxism

In 1918, when Mao Zedong graduated from the HuNan Provincial First Normal School, HuNan was mired in political turmoil. At that time, Yang Changji had been teaching in the Philosophy Department of Peking University. He told Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen and others about the work-study program in France. After discussing the plan, Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng and other members of the Xinmin Society mobilized society members to participate in the work-study program in France.

On August 19, Mao Zedong and his entourage arrived in Beijing. Together with Cai Hesen, he devoted most of his energy to preparing for the program, arranging for friends to attend various preparatory classes. After sending them off, Mao stayed in Beijing. Through Yang Changji’s introduction, he met Li Dazhao, then Director of the Peking University Library, who hired him as a library assistant.

During his time at Peking University, Mao took an active part in academic activities organized by the Journalism Research Society and the Philosophy Research Society. He met many key figures of the New Culture Movement, including Chen Duxiu. Under Li Dazhao’s influence, he began to gain a concrete understanding of the October Revolution and Marxism. Meanwhile, he fell in love with Yang Kaihui, daughter of Yang Changji.

Mao Zedong responded to the May Fourth Movement and led the anti imperialist and patriotic movement of HuNan students

In the spring of 1919, Mao Zedong left Beijing for two reasons: his mother was critically ill, and young people participating in the work-study program in France were about to depart overseas. He traveled via Shanghai to see off Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng and other young HuNanese bound for France.

On April 6, Mao Zedong returned to Changsha armed with newly acquired progressive ideas and practical experience of social movements. He lodged at Xiuye Primary School, where his classmate Zhou Shizhao worked as a teacher. On Zhou’s recommendation, the school hired Mao as a history instructor. Only one month later, the May Fourth Movement broke out.

In mid-May, Deng Zhongxia was sent back to HuNan by the Beijing Students’ Union to make contact with local activists. He briefed Mao Zedong, He Shuheng and others on the student movement in Beijing, and they discussed reorganizing the HuNan Students’ Union. The HuNan Students’ Union was founded that same month, with Mao Zedong serving as its de facto leader of HuNan’s anti-imperialist patriotic student movement.

At Mao Zedong’s proposal, the HuNan Students’ Union resolved to launch a journal entitled The Xiang River Review, appointing Mao as its editor-in-chief and chief contributor. The journal’s first issue came off the press in Changsha on July 14.

Mao serialized his lengthy essay The Great Union of the Masses across the second, third and fourth issues of The Xiang River Review. In mid-August, right after the fifth issue was printed, the journal was banned by Zhang Jingyao, the Military Governor of HuNan, and forced to cease publication. The HuNan Students’ Union was also forcibly dissolved at the same time.

Mao Zedong led the expulsion movement of HuNan warlord Zhang Jingyao

On October 5, 1919, Mao Zedong’s mother, Lady Wen, passed away. He rushed back to Shaoshan from Changsha to attend her funeral. On December 18 of the same year, he traveled to Beijing for the second time to lead the movement to expel Zhang Jingyao, the warlord ruling HuNan.

After arriving in Beijing, through consultations with people from all walks of life, he set up the Federation of HuNan Residents from All Circles in Beijing and the Committee of HuNan Residents in Beijing for the Expulsion of Zhang. Recognizing the power of news and public opinion, he also founded the Common People’s News Agency and served as its director. He drafted a large number of news dispatches, petitions, official telegrams and declarations, distributing them to newspapers in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan and other cities for publication. Amid nationwide condemnation of his tyrannical rule, Zhang Jingyao was eventually driven out of HuNan the following year.

During his stay in Beijing, Mao Zedong read Marxist classics including The Communist Manifesto.

Mao Zedong accepted Marxism

Between May and June 1920, Mao Zedong traveled to Shanghai to meet Chen Duxiu, with whom he discussed Marxist works he had read and related issues. On July 7, he returned to Changsha via Wuhan and was appointed principal of the Primary School Affiliated to the First Normal School. Soon afterward, he also took up posts as a Chinese language teacher and head teacher of a class at the First Normal School.

In early August, together with Yi Lirong and others, he founded the Cultural Book Society in Changsha to disseminate Marxism and the new culture. From August to September, he took part in the preparations for establishing the Russia Research Society. On November 25, he wrote a letter to Zhang Luozhang, proposing that the Xinmin Society “ought to become an association united by a doctrine. A doctrine is like a banner; once the banner is raised, all members will have a clear goal and know where to march forward.”

In November, he organized the Changsha Communist Group with He Shuheng and other comrades. On December 1, he penned a letter to Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng and other society members pursuing work-study in France. In the letter, he affirmed his acceptance of Marxism and his resolve to follow the path of Russia’s October Revolution. That same month, he began organizing the Socialist Youth League in Changsha. In the winter of 1920, he married Yang Kaihui.

From January 1 to 3, 1921, Mao Zedong, alongside more than ten others including He Shuheng, Peng Huang, Zhou Shizhao and Xiong Jinjin, convened the New Year Conference of Xinmin Society members at the Cultural Book Society on Chaozong Street, Changsha. At the conference, he proposed that the shared mission of the Xinmin Society should be “Remoulding China and the World”, and voiced his approval of adopting the Russian-style approach to transform China.

Mao Zedong Attends the First National Congress of the CPC

From July 23 to early August 1921, Mao Zedong and He Shuheng attended the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Shanghai as representatives of the Changsha Communist Group. In August, he returned to Changsha, took office as Director of the HuNan Branch of the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Organization, and co-founded the HuNan Self-Study University with He Shuheng. On October 10, he established the HuNan Branch of the CPC and served as its Secretary.

In May 1922, the HuNan Regional Executive Committee of the CPC was founded, with Mao Zedong as Secretary. Between September and December that year, he organized and led a series of strike movements involving workers of the Yuehan Railway, Anyuan Railways and Mines, as well as bricklayers and carpenters in Changsha, rapidly pushing the HuNan labor movement to an upsurge.

Mao Zedong Attends the Third National Congress of the CPC

In January 1923, Chen Duxiu set about preparing for the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He resolved to transfer Mao Zedong to work at the CPC Central Committee and sent Li Weihan back to HuNan to take over as Secretary of the HuNan Regional Executive Committee of the CPC.

In April, after wrapping up all work in the HuNan regional Party organization, Mao Zedong secretly left for Shanghai, parting with his wife Yang Kaihui and their six-month-old son Mao Anying.

In June, Mao attended the Third National Congress of the CPC as the delegate of the HuNan regional Party organization. At the congress, when discussing the specific organizational form of cooperation between the CPC and the Kuomintang (KMT), Mao delivered a speech arguing that recruiting large numbers of workers and peasants into the KMT would transform its class composition, enabling the CPC to form a united front with the bourgeoisie and jointly complete the national democratic revolution.

After deliberation, the congress adopted the policy of inner-Party cooperation: all CPC members would join the KMT as individuals while preserving the organizational independence of the Communist Party.

The congress elected a new Central Executive Committee consisting of nine full members and five alternate members. Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Luo Zhanglong, Cai Hesen and Tan Pingshan were chosen to form the Central Bureau, the de facto standing organ equivalent to the later Political Bureau. Three of the five members had originally belonged to the Xinmin Society. Chen Duxiu served as Chairman of the Central Bureau, and Mao Zedong as Secretary of the Central Bureau — this marked Mao Zedong’s first entry into the core leadership of the CPC.

Mao Zedong's first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, working within the Kuomintang

After the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee organs temporarily stayed in Guangzhou. From this time on, Mao Zedong began to engage with some senior figures of the Kuomintang (KMT). In September 1923, the Central Committee organs moved back to Shanghai for work. Mao Zedong was dispatched to HuNan to implement the resolutions of the Third National Congress and guide the HuNan Regional Party Committee in preparing local KMT organizations in HuNan. In early October, under Mao Zedong’s guidance, the Changsha Branch of the KMT was founded, followed successively by branches in Ningxiang, Anyuan and other places, as well as the HuNan General Branch of the KMT.

In January 1924, Mao Zedong attended the First National Congress of the Kuomintang of China as a delegate representing local KMT organizations in HuNan. During the congress, he spoke on multiple occasions. Besides putting forward opinions on establishing a national government, publishing and propaganda work, and setting up research societies, he also clarified his standpoints against right-wing viewpoints within the KMT. His speeches and performance at the congress won the appreciation and attention of Sun Yat-sen and many KMT members. He was elected alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee. After the congress, he was sent to Shanghai to work at the Shanghai Executive Department of the KMT, serving as a member of the department and Secretary of its Organization Bureau, among other posts.

During his stay in Shanghai, Communists represented by Mao Zedong waged struggles against the KMT right wing headed by Ye Chucang. In December 1924, worn out by overwork, Mao Zedong asked for leave to recuperate at his hometown in HuNan. In January 1925, the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China convened in Shanghai. The congress clearly stipulated that the proletariat should assume leadership of the democratic revolution and affirmed that the peasantry were the allies of the working class. It also elected a new Central Executive Committee and Central Bureau, but Mao Zedong was not re-elected. In February, Mao returned to Shaoshan, recuperating while launching the peasant movement.

In September 1925, Mao Zedong traveled to Guangzhou to take part in preparations for the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang. On October 5, Wang Jingwei, then Chairman of the Guangzhou National Government, was too swamped with state affairs to concurrently hold the post of Director of the KMT Central Publicity Department, so he recommended Mao Zedong as acting director. Upon taking office, Mao set about rectifying the prior flaws in publicity work: lack of planning, slow response and insufficient outreach. Under his leadership, KMT publicity work soon took on a vibrant new look.

On November 23, a small group of KMT Central Executive and Supervisory Committee members including Lin Sen, Zou Lu, Ye Chucang, Zhang Ji and Xie Chi held an unauthorized meeting they called the Fourth Plenary Session of the First KMT Central Executive and Supervisory Committee before Sun Yat-sen’s coffin in Biyun Temple, Western Hills, Beijing. They openly proposed revoking CPC members’ KMT party membership, removing Mao Zedong, Li Dazhao, Tan Pingshan and other CPC Central (Alternate) Executive Committee members from office, and suspending the authority of the KMT Central Executive Committee based in Guangzhou. This faction went down in history as the Western Hills Clique. They set up separate KMT branches in several regions, seized control of Shanghai’s Republican Daily, and whipped up anti-Soviet, anti-Communist propaganda opposing the three revolutionary policies of alliance with the Soviet Union, cooperation with the CPC, and assistance to peasants and workers.

On December 1, Mao Zedong published his essay Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society. On December 5, under the auspices of the KMT Central Publicity Department, he founded the Political Weekly to counter both old and new KMT right-wing forces.

In January 1926, Mao Zedong attended the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang held in Guangzhou in his capacity as alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee. Prior to the congress, he was appointed one of the five members of the Credentials Review Committee, and drafted the Circular of the Kuomintang of China Explaining Revolutionary Strategies to All Party Members at Home and Overseas for the KMT Central Committee, delivering stern criticism of the words and deeds of the Western Hills Clique. At the congress, Mao delivered the Publicity Work Report covering the period since the First KMT National Congress. He also participated in drafting the Resolution on Publicity Work, Supplementary Resolution on the Publicity Report, and Resolution on Party Newspapers. Among the 278 delegates to the congress, CPC members and KMT leftists formed an overwhelming majority, enabling the conference to uphold the three revolutionary policies and mete out corresponding disciplinary penalties to the right-wing figures who had attended the Western Hills meeting. At this congress, Mao Zedong was re-elected alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee, and the Standing Committee of the KMT Central Committee approved his continued tenure as acting Director of the Publicity Department.

In March 1926, Chiang Kai-shek manufactured the Zhongshan Warship Incident in Guangzhou. Under this pretext, he arrested Li Zhilong, a Communist and acting Director of the Navy Bureau, imposed martial law across Guangzhou, placed large numbers of Communists under surveillance and house arrest, disarmed the workers’ picket corps, and surrounded the Soviet Consulate. After the incident, Mao Zedong, Chen Yannian, Zhou Enlai and others advocated resolute countermeasures, yet their proposal was rejected by advisors from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Shortly afterward, at the Second Plenary Session of the Second KMT Central Executive Committee, Chiang Kai-shek put forward the Regulations on Party Affairs Consolidation, claiming the measure would avoid “internal party disputes”. The regulations stipulated that CPC members could not make up more than one-third of the executive committee members in KMT party organs at or above provincial and municipal levels, and that Communists were barred from serving as directors of any departments under the KMT Central Committee. Though some KMT leftists fiercely opposed the Regulations, they were ultimately adopted by the session. On May 25, in compliance with the Regulations on Party Affairs Consolidation, Mao Zedong stepped down from his post as acting Director of the KMT Central Publicity Department.

Mao Zedong and the Peasant Movement

After the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang, Mao Zedong joined the newly established Peasant Movement Committee of the KMT Central Executive Committee. On March 19, 1926, he was appointed Director of the Peasant Movement Institute run by the KMT Central Peasant Department. Having been forced to resign as Acting Director of the KMT Central Publicity Department, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the work of the institute, personally teaching three courses: China’s Peasant Question, Rural Education, and Geography.

In August, Mao organized faculty and students to conduct field internships in the Dongjiang Peasant Movement base centered on Haifeng, Guangdong, which was led by Peng Pai. This experience greatly deepened his understanding of peasant movements nationwide. In September, he wrote a preface titled The National Revolution and the Peasant Movement for the Series on Peasant Issues, a compilation he edited and printed. Gradually, he became a nationally authoritative figure on peasant movements. In October, Mao attended the Joint Provincial Conference of the KMT Central Committee in Guangzhou. In November, he left Guangzhou for Shanghai to serve as Secretary of the Peasant Movement Committee of the CPC Central Committee. Upon taking office, he formulated the Current Plan for Peasant Movements.

In late November, he embarked on an inspection tour along the Yangtze River, liaising with provincial KMT headquarters in Jiangxi, HuNan and Hubei to discuss preparations for the Wuchang Peasant Movement Institute. In December, in his capacity as Secretary of the CPC Central Peasant Committee, he attended an extraordinary meeting of the CPC Central Committee in Hankou. At the meeting, Chen Duxiu criticized the HuNan worker-peasant movement as “excessive” and “immature”, against which Mao voiced his opposition to Chen’s right-leaning policies. That same month, he attended the First HuNan Provincial Congress of Workers and the First HuNan Provincial Congress of Peasants in Changsha.

In January 1927, as an alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee, Mao Zedong went to the countryside to investigate peasant movements, conducting field research in five counties: Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Hengshan, Liling and Changsha. On February 5, after returning to Changsha, he delivered several reports to the HuNan Regional Committee of the CPC to rectify its mistakes in peasant movement work. This correction laid a solid mass foundation for the subsequent large-scale Autumn Harvest Uprising and Southern HuNan Uprising.

In March, excerpts from Mao’s Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in HuNan were first published in The Warrior Weekly, official organ of the HuNan Regional Committee of the CPC. The report put forward the proposition to “overthrow landlord armed forces and establish peasant armed forces”. It was reprinted in numerous newspapers and issued as a full-length monograph under the title HuNan’s Peasant Revolution (I). The official journal of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, The Communist International, published translations of the report in Russian and English successively, making it Mao’s first work to be introduced abroad.

Also in March, Mao attended the Third Plenary Session of the Second KMT Central Executive Committee held in Wuhan as an alternate Central Executive Committee member. Together with Deng Yanda and Chen Kewen, he submitted the Draft Resolution on the Land Question (later revised into the Draft Resolution on the Peasant Question) and the Declaration on the Peasants. Meanwhile, the Interim Executive Committee of the All-China Peasants’ Association was formally set up, with Mao serving as Standing Committee Member and Director of the Organization Department.

On April 2, the Fifth Enlarged Meeting of the Standing Committee of the KMT Central Committee resolved to form a Land Committee composed of five members: Deng Yanda, Xu Qian, Gu Mengyu, Tan Pingshan and Mao Zedong. The committee was tasked with “formulating concrete procedures for distributing land to peasants and fostering a nationwide revolutionary atmosphere in rural areas”. On April 4, the formal opening ceremony of the Central Peasant Movement Institute, which had already begun classes, was held. Deng Yanda, Mao Zedong and Chen Kewen formed the institute’s standing committee, with Mao bearing actual overall responsibility for its operation.

On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai, arresting and massacring large numbers of Communists and revolutionary masses. On April 18, Chiang set up a rival National Government in Nanjing, declaring all resolutions of the Wuhan National Government and KMT Central Committee (which had moved from Guangzhou to Wuhan in March) null and void. The first arrest warrant issued by the “Nanjing National Government” contained the names of 193 Communists and KMT leftists including Chen Duxiu, Tan Pingshan, Lin Boqu, Xu Qian, Wu Yuzhang, Yun Daiying and Mao Zedong.

On April 27, the Fifth National Congress of the CPC opened in Wuhan. The congress adopted the resolution on China passed at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International, criticized Chen Duxiu’s right opportunist errors, and adopted resolutions including the Resolution on the Political Situation and the Party’s Tasks. Nevertheless, the congress still pinned its hopes on the Wuhan Kuomintang, its National Government and military forces controlled by Wang Jingwei, Tan Yankai and Tang Shengzhi. Mao Zedong attended the congress and was elected alternate member of the CPC Central Executive Committee. Together with Peng Pai, Fang Zhimin and others, he drafted a comprehensive plan for widespread land redistribution, yet the proposal failed to attract due attention.

On May 21, the Ma Day Incident broke out, dealing a heavy blow to the HuNan worker-peasant movement. On June 24, to rebuild the nearly paralyzed HuNan Provincial Party Committee shattered by the Ma Day Incident, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee resolved to form a new HuNan Provincial Party Committee with Mao Zedong as Secretary. After returning to HuNan, Mao convened a meeting stressing that reactionary troops must be countered with armed force. On July 4, only ten days after arriving in HuNan, he was recalled to Wuhan to attend an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which discussed how HuNan Peasant Associations and peasant self-defense armed forces should respond to enemy arrests and massacres. At the meeting, Mao put forward the strategy of preserving peasant armed forces — “retreat to the mountains”.

On July 15, Wang Jingwei launched a counter-revolutionary coup in Wuhan, marking the merger of the Nanjing and Wuhan reactionary cliques and the total failure of the Great Revolution.

Mao Zedong and the Autumn Harvest Uprising

Following the complete breakdown of the CPC-KMT cooperation, the newly reorganized Standing Committee of the Interim Political Bureau made three key decisions: to concentrate all troops under the CPC’s command or influence in Nanchang to stage an uprising; to organize peasant insurrections in HuNan, Hubei, Guangdong and Jiangxi during the autumn harvest season; and to convene a central meeting to formulate new policies for the new historical period.

On August 1, 1927, the Front Committee of the CPC Central Committee, with Zhou Enlai as its Secretary, led more than 20,000 troops of the National Revolutionary Army under He Long and Ye Ting in the Nanchang Uprising, firing the first shot of armed resistance against the Kuomintang reactionaries.

On August 7, Mao Zedong attended the emergency central meeting held secretly in Hankou — the August 7th Meeting, a turning point of monumental significance in the history of the CPC. With assistance from the Comintern representative, the meeting summed up the experience and lessons from the failure of the Great Revolution, resolutely criticized the right capitulationist errors represented by Chen Duxiu, and set the general line of carrying out the Agrarian Revolutionary War and armed resistance against the KMT reactionaries. Mao Zedong was elected alternate member of the Interim Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Drawing on his personal experience, he criticized Chen’s right-leaning mistakes from four aspects: failure to uphold political independence during CPC-KMT cooperation, the Central Committee’s disregard for opinions from grassroots cadres and the masses, suppression of the peasant revolution, and abandonment of leadership over military forces. He also shared his views on the two components of the general line adopted at the meeting and put forward the crucial thesis that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.

On August 9, Mao attended the First Session of the Interim Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, where he criticized a plan proposed by the HuNan Provincial Party Committee and the Comintern inspector dispatched to Changsha — the scheme to organize a division in southern HuNan that would march on Guangdong together with the Nanchang Uprising troops. The meeting resolved to send Mao back to HuNan as a Central Special Envoy to convey the spirit of the August 7th Meeting, reorganize the provincial Party committee, and lead the Autumn Harvest Uprising.

On September 9, 1927, the Autumn Harvest Uprising along the HuNan-Jiangxi border led by Mao Zedong broke out. However, the nationwide revolutionary tide was already ebbing, and reactionary military forces far outnumbered revolutionary troops everywhere. The uprising suffered setbacks.

On September 19, Mao presided over a meeting of the Front Committee at Liren School in Wenjiashi, attended by principal regimental and divisional commanders. After assessing the objective situation, he advocated abandoning the planned assault on Changsha and shifting the uprising troops southward to remote mountainous rural areas under weak enemy rule, where they could secure a foothold, preserve revolutionary strength, and seek future development. After heated debate, his proposal was adopted with the support of Lu Deming, Commander-in-Chief, and the committee resolved to retreat to southern HuNan.

On September 29, Mao convened an enlarged meeting of the CPC Front Committee at the Taihexing Grocery Store in Sanwan Village, Yongxin County. The participants discussed the troops’ dire conditions and corresponding solutions, and resolved to overhaul and reorganize the army — a historic reform known as the Sanwan Reorganization.

Mao Zedong's Jinggangshan period

In October 1927, Mao Zedong led the uprising troops to Maoping in Ninggang County, Jiangxi Province. He persuaded two peasant armed contingents led by Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo in the Jinggang Mountains, and thereafter set about establishing the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area. In November, Mao Zedong was wrongly criticized by the Interim Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and removed from his post as alternate member of the Political Bureau.

In March 1928, Zhou Lu, a representative of the HuNan-Southern HuNan Special Committee of the CPC, arrived in the Jinggang Mountains to enforce the Left adventurist policies of the Central Committee. Drawing on the resolutions of the Enlarged Session of the Interim Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held in November 1927 and the instructions issued to the HuNan Provincial Party Committee on December 31, he accused the Jinggangshan base of being “too rightist and carrying out too little burning and killing” for failing to implement the so-called policy of “turning petty proprietors into proletarians and then compelling them to join the revolution”. He denounced Mao Zedong for “rightist flightism” and “gun fetishism”. He also misrepresented the Central Committee’s decision to remove Mao from the post of alternate member of the Interim Political Bureau as an order to “expel Mao from the Party”. The Front Committee chaired by Mao was abolished and reorganized into a Divisional Committee responsible only for military affairs, with He Tingying as Secretary. As a result, Mao was temporarily treated as a “non-Party member”, barred from serving as Secretary of the Front Committee or Party representative, and could only hold the position of Commander of the First Division of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army. Later, the false rumor that Mao had been expelled from the Party was clarified.

In April 1928, Mao Zedong’s troops joined forces with the uprising army led by Zhu De at Jinggangshan. The two contingents were merged into the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army, with Zhu De as Army Commander, Mao Zedong as Party Representative, and Chen Yi as Commander of the Training Battalion. The army had six regiments under its jurisdiction. At the First Congress of Party Representatives of the Fourth Army, the Fourth Army Military Commission was elected and Mao Zedong was chosen as its Secretary.

On May 4, a grand celebration rally marking the junction of Mao’s and Zhu’s troops was held in Longshi, Ninggang. Mao delivered a speech congratulating the troops on their successful rendezvous. On behalf of the Fourth Army Military Commission, he announced the three major tasks, Three Main Rules of Discipline and Six Points for Attention of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army, demanding strict observance by all officers and soldiers. Summarizing combat experience, Mao Zedong and Zhu De formulated the sixteen-character formula for guerrilla warfare: When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue. Guided by this principle, the uprising troops repelled numerous KMT reactionary “suppression campaigns”, and the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area expanded accordingly.

In May 1928, Mao Zedong presided over the First Congress of the Party Organization of the HuNan-Jiangxi Border Region at Maoping, Ninggang. He delivered a report summing up experience in building the Jinggangshan base, criticized rightist pessimism and flightism, reaffirmed the policy of establishing political power in the middle section of the Luoxiao Mountains, and set forth tasks of deepening the Agrarian Revolutionary War and strengthening political power, military and Party building in the revolutionary base areas. After deliberation, the unified consensus was reached, and the Party’s resolve and confidence in consolidating the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area were reinforced. The congress elected the HuNan-Jiangxi Border Special Committee of the CPC with Mao Zedong as Secretary, while Chen Yi succeeded him as Secretary of the Military Commission of the Fourth Red Army.

In June, in accordance with CPC Central Committee regulations, the Fourth Army of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army was renamed the Fourth Red Army, abbreviated as the Fourth Red Army. In July, at the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong was elected a member of the Central Committee. In August, owing to erroneous leadership by the HuNan Provincial Party Committee, the main force of the Red Army advanced rashly into southern HuNan, suffering the “August Setback”. Afterwards, the main force of the Fourth Red Army marched back to Jinggangshan to restore the base area.

In October, Mao Zedong drafted the resolution for the Second Congress of the Party Organization of the HuNan-Jiangxi Border Region, which included the essay Why Is It That Red Political Power Can Exist in China?, putting forward the ideology of “armed struggle by workers and peasants with rural base areas”. In early November, Mao received the Central Committee’s instruction letter dated June 4. He convened an enlarged meeting of the HuNan-Jiangxi Border Special Committee at Ciping. Following the Central letter’s directives, the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army of the CPC Central Committee was established, composed of Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Tan Zhenlin, Song Qiaosheng and Mao Kewen, with Mao Zedong as Secretary. The Front Committee exercised unified leadership over the Border Special Committee and the Military Commission of the Fourth Red Army.

On November 25, Mao Zedong wrote a report to the Central Committee on behalf of the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army, titled The Struggle in the Jinggang Mountains, summarizing the experience of armed struggle by workers and peasants in the Jinggangshan base.

In December, the main force of the Fifth Red Army, founded in the Pingjiang Uprising and led by Peng Dehuai and Teng Daiyuan, joined forces with the Fourth Red Army under Mao Zedong and Zhu De, further reinforcing the armed revolutionary strength in Jinggangshan. That same month, Mao Zedong presided over the formulation of the Jinggangshan Land Law.

Mao Zedong opened up the base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian

In January 1929, Mao Zedong, together with Zhu De and Chen Yi, led the main force of the Fourth Red Army on a march toward southern Jiangxi and western Fujian. By the spring of 1930, two revolutionary base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian had taken initial shape.

In March, to adapt to the new situation, Mao Zedong and Zhu De reorganized the Fourth Red Army in Tingzhou, restructuring the original regiments into three columns: the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Columns. In compliance with the resolutions of the Sixth National Congress of the CPC, the former Workers’ and Peasants’ Movement Committee of the Fourth Red Army was reorganized into a Political Department, with Mao concurrently serving as Director of the Political Department.

On April 1, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the Fourth Red Army into Ruijin, Jiangxi, where they joined forces with the Fifth Red Army under Peng Dehuai. In early April, the outbreak of the Jiangxi-Guangxi War distracted KMT troops in Jiangxi, leaving them no capacity to contain Red Army operations.

On April 11, Mao presided over an enlarged meeting of the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army in Yudu County. The meeting approved Peng Dehuai’s plan to lead his troops back to Jinggangshan to restore the HuNan-Jiangxi Border Base Area. It also resolved that the main force of the Fourth Red Army would launch short-range dispersed operations across southern Jiangxi to mobilize the masses, overthrow local tyrants, distribute land, develop local armed forces, establish red political power, and consolidate and expand the southern Jiangxi Revolutionary Base Area.

That same month, Mao drafted the Xingguo Land Law. Drawing on the resolutions of the Sixth CPC National Congress and practical rural conditions, he revised the provision “confiscate all land” from the earlier Jinggangshan Land Law to “confiscate all public land and land belonging to the landlord class”.

In June, Mao attended the Seventh Congress of Party Representatives of the Fourth Red Army held in Longyan. His correct views on the Red Army’s missions, political work and military operations failed to gain acceptance, and he was voted out of the post of Secretary of the Front Committee, an position originally assigned to him by the CPC Central Committee. After the congress, he stepped down from core leadership of the Fourth Red Army and traveled to western Fujian to recuperate while guiding local Party work.

In July, he guided the convening of the First Congress of the CPC in Western Fujian. In September, the CPC Central Committee sent an instruction letter to the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army, affirming Mao’s correct propositions on Red Army operational strategies and the building of a strong people’s revolutionary army.

In December, Mao presided over the Ninth Congress of Party Representatives of the Fourth Red Army in Gutian Village, Shanghang County, Fujian Province. He delivered a political report at the congress and drafted the conference resolution, widely known as the Gutian Congress Resolution. The congress re-elected Mao Zedong Secretary of the Front Committee.

Mao Zedong, starting from reality, opposed Marxism

In January 1930, Mao Zedong wrote the essay A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire, elaborating the theory of the Chinese revolutionary path of encircling cities from the countryside and seizing political power through armed struggle.

In May, he conducted a social survey in Xunwu, Jiangxi, and composed Oppose Book Worship, putting forward the famous thesis: “No investigation, no right to speak.”

On June 11, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee adopted the resolution The New Revolutionary High Tide and the Initial Victory in One or Several Provinces, drafted by Li Lisan. This meeting marked the ascendancy of Li Lisan’s Left adventurist line within the CPC Central Committee. That same month, the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army and the Western Fujian Special Committee held a joint meeting. In accordance with instructions from the Central Committee, they reorganized the Fourth Red Army, Sixth Red Army and Twelfth Red Army (formed by merging the 3rd Column of the Fourth Red Army with local armed forces in southern Jiangxi) into the First Route Army of the Red Army, soon renamed the First Red Army Group. Zhu De served as Commander-in-Chief and Mao Zedong as Political Commissar; the General Front Committee of the First Route Army was set up with Mao as its Secretary.

Always proceeding from objective realities, Mao Zedong and Zhu De employed troops flexibly and constantly adjusted their operational routes, refusing to mechanically carry out the Central Committee’s order to attack Nanchang and Jiujiang. Their prudent stance avoided heavy losses that would have been incurred by Left adventurist military blind action.

In September, Qu Qiubai and Zhou Enlai presided over the Third Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee to correct Li Lisan’s Left adventurist errors. At the session, Mao Zedong was elected alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Zhu De was elected alternate member of the Central Committee by supplementary election.

Mao Zedong's First Anti Encirclement and Suppression Campaign

In October 1930, Chiang Kai-shek, fresh from a decisive victory in the Central Plains War, assembled 100,000 troops to launch the First Encirclement Campaign against the revolutionary base areas in western and southern Jiangxi. Under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, the main force of the First Front Red Army implemented the strategic guideline of "luring the enemy in deep".

From December 30 to January 3 of the following year, troops of the First Front Red Army, directed by Mao Zedong, Zhu De and other commanders, smashed the Kuomintang’s First Encirclement Campaign, sending shockwaves across the whole country.

On January 7, 1931, the Enlarged Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the CPC convened in Shanghai. Mao Zedong was elected alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, though he was absent from the meeting.

Mao Zedong's Second Anti Encirclement Campaign

Chiang Kai-shek was greatly shocked by the defeat of his first large-scale encirclement campaign. In early February 1931, he appointed He Yingqin, Minister of War, concurrently as Director of the Nanchang Field Headquarters, to unify command of KMT troops tasked with encirclement operations across four provinces: HuNan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Fujian.

At the beginning of April, he mobilized a total of 200,000 troops consisting of eighteen divisions and three brigades, doubling the troop strength deployed in the first campaign. Faced with this massive KMT force bearing down on the base area, Mao Zedong opposed two proposed countermeasures: abandoning the base area entirely or scattering Red Army troops to divert the enemy. Instead, he insisted on leveraging the favorable conditions within the base, luring the enemy deep into our territory on the spot, and relying on the combined strength of military troops and local civilians inside the base to shatter the enemy encirclement. He also strongly advocated concentrating all Red Army forces, pointing out that troop dispersion would fail to hold back the enemy and only bring greater hardships to the Red Army. After heated deliberation at an enlarged meeting, Mao’s strategic proposal was adopted.

In May, under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, the First Front Red Army smashed the Kuomintang’s Second Encirclement Campaign.

Mao Zedong's Third Anti Encirclement and Suppression Campaign

On June 6, 1931, Chiang Kai-shek issued the Message to All Officers and Soldiers of the Nation on Suppressing the Bandits, claiming he would “put an end to civil strife” and “wipe out the Red bandits”. On June 24, Chiang appointed He Yingqin Commander-in-Chief of the Encirclement Troops and concurrently Commander of the Left Army Group, and Chen Mingshu Commander of the Right Army Group. He assembled a total force of 300,000 troops consisting of twenty-three divisions and three brigades to launch an encirclement campaign against the Red Army.

From July to September, under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, the First Front Red Army smashed the Kuomintang’s Third Encirclement Campaign. Seizing the momentum of victory, the Red Army liberated several new areas and expanded the revolutionary base areas.

Mao Zedong established the Chinese Soviet Republic

Following the victory in the Third Counter-Encirclement Campaign, Mao Zedong proceeded to Yeping in Ruijin to join the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China in the Soviet Areas. On October 11, 1931, he became Acting Secretary of the Bureau. Under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, the main force of the First Front Red Army continued to expand its victories across southern Jiangxi and western Fujian.

As a result, the long-separated revolutionary base areas of southern Jiangxi and western Fujian were linked into a single contiguous territory, forming the consolidated Central Revolutionary Base Area (the Central Soviet Area) centered on Ruijin. It spanned the territory of 28 counties, incorporating fifteen county towns including Ruijin, Xingguo, Yudu, Tingzhou and Shanghang, covering a total area of more than 50,000 square kilometers with a population of over 2.5 million. Within the base area, the Party mobilized the masses, established or restored Party and Youth League organizations as well as Soviet political power, distributed land to peasants, and recruited 12,000 local residents into the Red Army, laying a solid foundation for the founding of the Chinese Soviet Republic.

From November 1 to 5, Mao Zedong was marginalized at the First Congress of Party Organizations in the Central Soviet Area (the Southern Jiangxi Congress). He was accused of "narrow empiricism", "rich peasant line" and "persistent and extremely serious right opportunism".

On November 7, the First National Congress of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Delegates of the Chinese Soviet Republic convened in Yeping Village, Ruijin County, Jiangxi. On behalf of the Central Bureau of the CPC in the Soviet Areas, Mao Zedong delivered the Report on Political Issues. That same month, the Presidium of the Congress set up a Constitution Drafting Committee consisting of Ren Bishi, Wang Jiaxiang, Mao Zedong and others. After deliberation and in accordance with the guiding principles on the constitutional outline sent by the Provisional Central Committee, the committee formulated the Constitutional Outline of the Chinese Soviet Republic, which was adopted by the congress. The meeting also passed decrees submitted by the Provisional Central Committee for discussion, including the Land Law of the Chinese Soviet Republic, the Labor Law of the Chinese Soviet Republic, and the Economic Policies of the Chinese Soviet Republic. The congress elected a Central Executive Committee of 63 members including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Xiang Ying, and proclaimed the founding of the Chinese Soviet Republic.

After the closing of the congress on November 25, the Central Executive Committee appointed fifteen members including Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong to the Central Revolutionary Military Commission (abbreviated as the CRM Commission), which exercised unified leadership and command over all Red Army forces nationwide.

On November 27, at the First Session of the Central Executive Committee, Mao Zedong was elected Chairman, with Xiang Ying and Zhang Guotao as Vice-Chairmen. The session also elected Mao Zedong Chairman of the People’s Committee, with Xiang Ying and Zhang Guotao as its Vice-Chairmen. It resolved that the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic would be seated in Ruijin, Jiangxi. Following instructions from the Provisional Central Committee, the meeting established the Central Revolutionary Military Commission and abolished the official titles of Commander-in-Chief, General Political Commissar of the First Front Red Army and Secretary of the General Front Committee. This move stripped Mao Zedong of his military leadership over the Red Army in the Central Soviet Area.

In January 1932, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission issued an order to capture Ganzhou. Mao Zedong voiced his opposition but was subjected to criticism. Shortly after the meeting, he requested leave to recuperate at an ancient temple on East Huashan Hill on the outskirts of Ruijin city.

In March, after the Red Army suffered a setback in the assault on Ganzhou, Mao Zedong suspended his rest and hurried to the frontline to take charge of operations. On April 15, he issued the Declaration on the War of Resistance against Japan. On May 9, together with Xiang Ying, he released the Telegram of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic Opposing the Kuomintang’s Betrayal in the Shanghai Ceasefire Agreement.

In June, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the 1st and 5th Red Army Groups back from western Fujian to southern Jiangxi. In October, at the plenary meeting of the Central Bureau of the CPC in the Soviet Areas held in Ningdu, Mao came under attack from the leadership adhering to Left erroneous lines. After the conference, he was dismissed from his post as General Political Commissar of the First Front Red Army and left for Tingzhou, Fujian to recuperate.

Mao Zedong's Fourth Anti Encirclement and Suppression Campaign

Starting from the winter of 1932, the Kuomintang General Headquarters for Suppressing the Communists in the Jiangxi-Guangdong-Fujian Border Region successively assembled nearly 400,000 troops to prepare the Fourth Encirclement Campaign against the Central Soviet Area.

In late January 1933, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Nanchang and concurrently took office as Commander-in-Chief of the Jiangxi Troops for Suppressing the Communists to personally direct this encirclement operation. He adopted the operational guideline of "simultaneous advance and coordinated assault", attempting to annihilate the main force of the First Front Red Army in the Lichuan-Jianning area.

In early February, the Provisional Central Committee of the CPC fully pushed its "offensive line", eradicating the influence of Mao Zedong’s active defense line in the Central Revolutionary Base Area, and launched the so-called struggle against the "Luo Ming Line".

In March, under the command of Zhou Enlai and Zhu De, the First Front Red Army followed Mao Zedong’s strategic guideline of active defense and adopted the combat tactic of large corps ambush. The Red Army wiped out three enemy elite divisions, capturing more than 10,000 enemy troops and seizing over 10,000 firearms of various types, securing victory in the Fourth Counter-Encirclement Campaign.

Mao Zedong led the economic construction of the Central Soviet Area

While launching military encirclement campaigns, Chiang Kai-shek also tightened the economic blockade against the Central Soviet Area. Breaking the military encirclement fell mainly to Zhou Enlai and Zhu De, who commanded combat operations, while the arduous task of shattering the economic blockade rested largely on Mao Zedong’s shoulders. During his tenure presiding over the Provisional Central Government, Mao devoted tremendous energy to leading economic construction across the Central Soviet Area.

On May 30, 1933, together with Xiang Ying and others, he issued the Declaration of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic Against the Kuomintang’s Betrayal of Beiping and Tianjin.

On June 1, jointly with Xiang Ying, he released the Decree on the Land Investigation Movement issued by the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic.

In August, he delivered the report Smashing the Fifth Encirclement Campaign and the Tasks of Soviet Economic Construction at the Economic Construction Conference for Seventeen Counties in the Southern Part of the Central Soviet Area, held in Ruijin.

In October, he wrote the essay How to Analyze Rural Classes, which became the official standard for classifying rural class statuses.

In November, he conducted field surveys successively in Changgang Township of Xingguo County and Caixi Township of Shanghang County, completing two investigative works: Investigation of Changgang Township and Investigation of Caixi Township.

Mao Zedong led the fifth anti encirclement and suppression campaign

In the latter half of 1933, after six months of preparations, Chiang Kai-shek launched the Fifth large-scale military Encirclement Campaign against the Central Soviet Area. Having drawn lessons from the failures of previous encirclement operations, he emphasized implementing the guideline of “30 percent military measures and 70 percent political measures”: introducing the baojia system and collective responsibility law in regions surrounding the base areas; imposing an even tighter economic blockade on the Soviet Area; and adopting the new military tactics of fortressism and gradual advance. He mobilized one million troops and assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief himself, deploying an initial force of 500,000 men to besiege the Central Soviet Area from three directions: the Northern, Southern and Western Routes.

The Provisional Central Committee of the CPC intended to shatter this encirclement by pursuing an adventurist offensive line. By this time, Mao Zedong had been excluded from Party and Red Army military leadership and was only responsible for the work of the Central Soviet Government. From the preparatory phase of the Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign onward, he opposed the erroneous tactics of “fighting with two fists” and the subsequent policy of “repelling the enemy outside our gate”. He argued that the Red Army should voluntarily evacuate Lichuan, lure the enemy deep into the Jianning-Taining region, concentrate the main Red Army forces, and annihilate the enemy through mobile warfare.

In January 1934, the Sixth Central Committee Fifth Plenary Session of the CPC was convened in Ruijin. Mao Zedong did not attend the meeting but was elected a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the session. The plenum still asserted that the struggle against the Fifth Encirclement Campaign was “the struggle to secure complete victory for Soviet China”, and called on the entire Party to “focus fire against the principal danger of right opportunism”. It condemned Mao Zedong’s series of propositions on land issues as the “rich peasant line”.

On January 22, the Second National Congress of Soviets opened. At the First Session of the newly elected Second Central Executive Committee following the congress, Mao Zedong was re-elected Chairman of the Central Executive Committee. The session also approved the proposal put forward by the CPC Central Committee to replace Mao Zedong with Zhang Wentian as Chairman of the People’s Committee.

On June 19, together with Xiang Ying and others, Mao issued the Declaration of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic Against the Kuomintang’s Betrayal of North China. On July 15, jointly with Xiang Ying and other comrades, he released the Declaration of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army on Marching North to Resist Japan.

Under the influence of Wang Ming’s Left dogmatist erroneous line, the Central Red Army suffered defeat in the Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign.

Mao Zedong led the Red Army on the Long March

In October 1934, the main force of the Central Red Army was forced to abandon the Central Revolutionary Base Area and break through the blockade to shift positions, embarking on the Long March. On October 18, Mao Zedong led his guard platoon out of Yudu County and set off on the Long March. At the end of November, the Red Army suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Xiang River. On November 30, he crossed the Xiang River with the First Field Column of the Military Commission. On December 12, at an emergency meeting of CPC central leaders held in Tongdao, HuNan, he strongly urged the Red Army to abandon the original plan of marching west to western HuNan to join the Second and Sixth Red Army Corps, and instead advance toward Guizhou, where enemy forces were weak. His proposal was adopted.

From January 15 to 17, 1935, Mao attended the Enlarged Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee convened in Zunyi, Guizhou — the Zunyi Conference — and was newly elected a Standing Member of the Political Bureau. The conference put an end to the dominance of Wang Ming’s Left adventurist line within the CPC Central Committee and effectively established a new central leadership with Mao Zedong as its core. In March, a three-person military command group consisting of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Wang Jiaxiang was formed. Between March and May, together with Zhou Enlai and other commanders, Mao directed the First Front Red Army to cross the Chishui River four times, ingeniously ford the Jinsha River, and seize Luding Bridge by a daring assault, securing a decisive victory in the strategic shift.

On June 15, together with Xiang Ying and others, he issued the Declaration Against Japan’s Annexation of North China and Chiang Kai-shek’s National Betrayal. In June, he led the First Front Red Army to join forces with the Fourth Front Red Army in western Sichuan. Shortly afterward, he waged a struggle against Zhang Guotao’s flightism and splittism. On October 19, Mao led the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army to Wuqi Town in Yan’an, Shaanxi Province. The Red Army successfully completed the Long March.

Mao Zedong determined the strategy of establishing an anti Japanese national united front

In December 1935, Mao Zedong attended the Political Bureau meeting of the CPC Central Committee held in Wayaobao, northern Shaanxi, known as the Wayaobao Conference, which formulated the strategic policy of establishing the anti-Japanese national united front. On December 27, he delivered the report On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism at a meeting of Party activists, elaborating the strategic line of the anti-Japanese national united front.

On January 25, 1936, together with Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai and eighteen other Red Army generals, he jointly issued the Letter to All Officers and Soldiers of the Northeast Army from the Red Army Expressing Willingness to Unite with Them in Resisting Japan. The letter put forward concrete measures for organizing a national defense government and an anti-Japanese allied army, and proposed dispatching representatives from both sides for joint consultations.

From February to May, Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai led the main force of the First Front Red Army across the Yellow River on the Eastern Expedition. In March, he put forward five proposals to the Nanjing authorities calling for an end to the civil war and united resistance against Japan.

On June 1, Mao Zedong and Zhu De issued twenty propositions for saving the nation and the people. On June 12, they released a declaration voicing support for the Guangdong-Guangxi Incident and set forth an eight-point program for resisting Japan and saving the nation.

Between July and October, in Bao’an, northern Shaanxi, Mao held multiple interviews with Edgar Snow, an American journalist, answering his wide-ranging questions about the Chinese revolution, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and other topics, and recounted his personal life experience.

On August 10, Mao attended a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and delivered a report on relations between the Kuomintang and the CPC and the united front. On August 25, he drafted the Letter from the Communist Party of China to the Kuomintang of China, appealing for united resistance against Japanese aggression.

On December 7, Mao Zedong was appointed Chairman of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

Mao Zedong peacefully resolved the Xi'an Incident

In mid-December 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng staged a military remonstrance in Xi’an and detained Chiang Kai-shek. After analyzing the intricate and complicated political situation of the time, Mao Zedong and the CPC Central Committee set the policy of peacefully resolving the Xi’an Incident. They dispatched Zhou Enlai and other comrades to Xi’an to take part in negotiations, which brought about the peaceful settlement of the incident. That same December, Mao wrote the work Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War.

Mao Zedong's Second Cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party

On January 13, 1937, Mao Zedong moved into Yan’an together with the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission. On February 9, he attended a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which discussed and adopted the Telegram from the CPC Central Committee to the Third Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee, putting forward five national policies and four guarantees. This document virtually served as the guiding program for CPC-KMT cooperation negotiations. In March, he met with Agnes Smedley, an American journalist, and answered her questions about the Sino-Japanese War and the Xi’an Incident.

From April to July, he delivered lectures on dialectical materialism at the Anti-Japanese University of Military and Political Affairs. Two chapters of these lectures were later compiled into On Practice and On Contradiction. In May, at the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he delivered the political report The Tasks of the Communist Party of China in the Period of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the concluding speech Strive to Win Millions of Masses to Join the Anti-Japanese National United Front.

On July 7, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out, marking the start of the nationwide War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. On July 15, the CPC delegation submitted the Declaration of the CPC Central Committee on the Announcement of CPC-KMT Cooperation to Chiang Kai-shek’s government. The declaration once again demonstrated the CPC’s sincerity to prioritize national interests and push for formal CPC-KMT cooperation to resist Japan. On July 23, Mao Zedong published Guidelines, Methods and Future of the Struggle Against Japanese Aggression, setting forth policies for resolute resistance against Japan and opposing compromise and concession.

From August 22 to 25, he attended the Enlarged Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held in Luochuan, northern Shaanxi. He emphasized the principle of independence and initiative within the united front, elaborated the strategic guideline of independent mountain guerrilla warfare, and was elected Secretary of the newly reorganized Central Military Commission of the CPC. On August 25, together with Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, he jointly issued the order reorganizing the Red Army into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Afterwards, he directed the Eighth Route Army to march to the front lines of the War of Resistance.

On September 22, the Kuomintang finally published the CPC’s cooperation declaration via the Central News Agency. On September 23, Chiang Kai-shek issued a Talk on the CPC’s Declaration, pointing out the necessity of unity to resist foreign aggression and stating that “the declaration issued by the Communist Party of China is ample proof that national consciousness overrides all else”. In effect, he recognized the CPC’s legal status nationwide. The publication of the CPC’s cooperation declaration and Chiang’s talk marked the formal formation of the anti-Japanese national united front.

On November 12, 1937, Mao Zedong delivered the report The Situation and Tasks After the Fall of Shanghai and Taiyuan at a meeting of Party activists in Yan’an, comprehensively expounding his views on the united front and CPC-KMT relations. In December, he attended a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and spoke out against Wang Ming’s right capitulationist proposition of “everything passing through the united front”, reaffirming and upholding the guidelines and policies set at the Luochuan Conference.

In the spring of 1938, he made the decision to send the Eighth Route Army from mountainous North China to plain areas to carry out guerrilla warfare. In May, he published the article Problems of Strategy in Guerrilla War Against Japan. From May 26 to June 3, he delivered the lecture On Protracted War at the Yan’an Association for the Study of the War of Resistance Against Japan. He comprehensively analyzed the era background and fundamental characteristics of both China and Japan in the Sino-Japanese War, refuted the theories of “quick victory” and “national subjugation”, and elaborated the general guideline of a protracted war for China’s resistance against Japan.

From September 14 to 27, he attended a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, where Wang Jiaxiang conveyed instructions from the Communist International stating that the CPC Central leading organ should take Mao Zedong as its core to achieve unified leadership. Mao delivered a lengthy speech at the session. From September 29 to November 6, he attended the Enlarged Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, delivering the political report On the New Stage and the conference conclusion. The plenary session endorsed the line of the Political Bureau headed by Mao Zedong.

On February 2, 1939, Mao Zedong addressed the Mass Production Mobilization Conference for Party, government and military personnel in Yan’an, calling on everyone to “rely on our own hands to overcome economic hardships”. On February 5, he delivered the speech Oppose Capitulationism at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. In late April, he wrote the article The May Fourth Movement. On May 4, he gave the lecture The Orientation of the Youth Movement at a Yan’an youth rally marking the 20th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement.

From July to August, he delivered numerous speeches condemning the KMT diehards for creating anti-Communist frictions and calling for continued unity in the war of resistance. On September 16, he held an interview with correspondents from three news outlets: the Central News Agency, Sao Dang Pao and Xin Min Pao, restating the self-defense principle toward KMT diehards stirring up anti-Communist troubles: “We will not attack unless we are attacked; if we are attacked, we will certainly counterattack”.

On October 4, he published the Preface to the Communist Magazine, clarifying that the united front, armed struggle and Party building are the three magic weapons enabling the Chinese revolution to defeat the enemy. On December 1, he drafted a decision of the CPC Central Committee on recruiting large numbers of intellectuals. On December 21, he wrote the essay In Memory of Norman Bethune for the memorial volume compiled by the Political Department and Health Department of the Eighth Route Army. That same month, he co-authored the work The Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party of China. From December 1939 to March 1940, he led the Party and army to repel the first anti-Communist upsurge launched by KMT diehards.

In January 1940, he published On New Democracy, systematically elaborating the theories and program of the new democratic revolution. On March 6, he drafted a CPC Central Committee instruction on political power in anti-Japanese base areas, putting forward the implementation of the Three-Thirds System. On March 11, he delivered the report Strategic Problems in the Current Anti-Japanese United Front, summing up experience from repelling the first anti-Communist upsurge and setting forth the strategic thinking of “develop progressive forces, win over intermediate forces, and oppose diehard forces”, as well as the principles of fighting only when necessary, fighting to win, and stopping at the right moment.

On May 4, he drafted a CPC Central Committee instruction to the Southeast Bureau and the New Fourth Army, stressing the need to boldly expand armed forces to resist assaults by anti-Communist diehards and adopting a combative line to “prepare for possible sudden nationwide incidents”. In late June, he delivered a report at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee analyzing the international situation and its impact on China’s war of resistance, pointing out that the Party must both guard against sudden incidents initiated by KMT diehards and strive for an improvement in the overall situation.

In November, he drafted the reply telegram (the Jia Telegram) sent by Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Ye Ting and Xiang Ying to He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi in response to their Hao Telegram, firmly refuting their groundless accusations against the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. In December, he spoke with cadres who had returned from the front lines to study at the Central Party School, emphasizing the importance for cadres to master Marxism-Leninism.

In early January 1941, the Southern Anhui Incident broke out. On January 20, he drafted an order from the Central Military Commission of the CPC to re-establish the headquarters of the New Fourth Army, and gave an interview to Xinhua News Agency correspondents on the Southern Anhui Incident, solemnly putting forward twelve measures to resolve the incident.

On May 1, the Administrative Program of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, reviewed and revised by Mao and approved by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, was issued, stipulating that the Three-Thirds System must be implemented in border region political power construction. On May 8, he drafted an inner-Party instruction Summary on Repelling the Second Anti-Communist Upsurge, advancing the strategic thinking of “counter blows with blows, united work with united work” and winning over intermediate forces.

On May 19, he delivered the report Reform Our Study at a Yan’an cadre meeting, advocating opposition to subjectivism and elaborating the ideological principle of seeking truth from facts. On August 1, he drafted the CPC Central Committee’s Decision on Investigation and Research. From September 10 to October 22, he attended the Enlarged Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and delivered a speech opposing subjectivism and sectarianism. On September 26, the CPC Central Committee issued the Decision on Senior Study Groups, establishing a Central Study Group with Mao Zedong as group leader. In the autumn and winter of that year, he successively presided over the compilation of collections of Party historical documents: Since the Sixth National Congress, Before the Sixth National Congress, and Two Lines.

On February 1, 1942, he delivered the report Rectify the Party’s Style of Work at the opening ceremony of the Central Party School. On February 8, he gave the speech Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing at a cadre meeting convened by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. In May, he addressed a forum for literary and art workers in Yan’an and delivered the concluding speech for the forum. On September 7, he wrote an editorial for Yan’an’s Jiefang Daily, arguing that the policy of streamlining administration and reducing troop numbers was an extremely important measure. In December, he submitted the lengthy written report Economic and Financial Problems to the senior cadre conference of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, elaborating the general financial and economic guideline of “develop the economy and ensure supplies”.

On March 20, 1943, Mao Zedong was elected Chairman of the Political Bureau and Chairman of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee at a meeting of the Political Bureau. On May 26, he delivered the report On the Dissolution of the Communist International at a cadre conference convened by the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. On June 1, he drafted a CPC Central Committee decision on leadership methods. On July 1, he wrote a letter to Kang Sheng, pointing out that work to guard against counter-revolutionaries must rely on investigation and research, distinguish right from wrong, educate the masses, and reject the practice of extorting confessions through torture and blindly believing forced testimony.

On July 12, he wrote the editorial Interrogating the Kuomintang for Jiefang Daily, exposing the KMT diehards’ plot to attack the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. From early September to early October, he presided over meetings of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, criticizing Wang Ming’s Left adventurist errors during the Agrarian Revolutionary War and his right opportunist mistakes in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, delivering multiple speeches and summations at the sessions. In December, he inscribed the phrase “Seek Truth from Facts” for the completion of the auditorium of the Central Party School.

On April 12 and May 20, 1944, he successively delivered lectures on study and the current situation at the senior cadre conference of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the First Division of the Central Party School. On May 15, through Lin Boqu, who negotiated with KMT representatives in Xi’an, he submitted a written opinion drafted by himself as the concrete content for negotiations, putting forward twenty proposals on national politics and outstanding disputes between the two parties.

On May 21, he was elected Chairman of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Presidium of the Seventh Enlarged Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee at the plenary session. On June 5, the CPC Central Committee Instruction on Urban Work, drafted by Mao, was discussed and adopted at the plenary session. From June to August, he met numerous members of the Northwest Correspondents Delegation of Chinese and foreign journalists and personnel of the U.S. Army Observation Group stationed in Yan’an, elaborating on the CPC’s anti-Japanese policies and CPC-KMT relations.

On September 8, he delivered the speech Serve the People at Zhang Side’s memorial service. On October 31, he presided over a meeting of the Presidium of the Seventh Enlarged Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, resolving to send Wang Zhen and Wang Shoudao to lead troops southward to “establish a base area centered on the Hengshan Mountains”. In November, together with Zhou Enlai and others, he held multiple talks with Patrick Hurley, personal representative of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, on CPC-KMT relations and reached a draft five-point agreement, which was later rejected by Chiang Kai-shek.

On April 20, 1945, Mao Zedong attended the final session of the Seventh Enlarged Plenary Session of the Sixth CPC Central Committee, which basically adopted the Resolution on Several Historical Questions of the Party, revised extensively with key revisions made by Mao. From April 23 to June 11, he presided over the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, delivering the opening speech Two Destinies for China and the closing speech The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains, and submitting the written political report On the Coalition Government to the congress. The congress established Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology for all work of the entire Party.

On June 19, he was elected Chairman of the CPC Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee. In July, he held talks with six members of the National Political Council including Chu Fucheng and Huang Yanpei on CPC-KMT relations. During the talks, he discussed how to break out of the historical cycle of rise and fall of political parties and groups through a new path of democracy.

On August 9, he issued the statement The Last Battle Against Japanese Aggressors. On August 13, he delivered the lecture The Situation After the Victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan and Our Guidelines, putting forward the policy of tit-for-tat struggle and fighting for every inch of land against the Kuomintang to strive for national peace and democracy. On August 15, the Emperor of Japan broadcast the Imperial Rescript on Surrender, announcing Japan’s unconditional surrender, marking the final victory of the Chinese people’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. On September 2, the Japanese government formally signed the instrument of surrender, bringing China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to a victorious close.

Mao Zedong's Chongqing Negotiations

Following the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang authorities headed by Chiang Kai-shek attempted to seize the fruits of the victory over Japan, deprive the people of the rights they had won through civil war, and push Chinese society back to the reactionary one-party autocratic dictatorship that prevailed before the War of Resistance.

Yet the civil war was deeply unpopular immediately after the war’s end, and the pursuit of peace represented an irresistible historical trend. The people yearned for peace, and the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain all opposed a civil war in China. Chiang Kai-shek also needed time to gain a favorable military position for a potential civil war. Therefore, while actively preparing for war, he expressed willingness to hold peace talks with the Communist Party of China. In mid-to-late August 1945, he sent three consecutive telegrams inviting Mao Zedong to Chongqing to jointly discuss “all important domestic and international issues”.

On August 28, Mao Zedong, accompanied by Zhou Enlai and Wang Ruofei, traveled to Chongqing to hold negotiations with the Kuomintang authorities. Mao’s personal trip to Chongqing fully demonstrated the CPC’s sincere desire for peace, winning warm acclaim from people across the country and high praise from public opinion.

After 43 days of complicated and arduous negotiations, the two sides formally signed the Summary of Conversations Between Representatives of the National Government and the Communist Party of China (commonly known as the Double Tenth Agreement) in Chongqing on October 10. The Kuomintang authorities recognized the “fundamental policy of building the country through peace”, agreed to “long-term cooperation, resolutely avoid civil war, and build an independent, free, prosperous and strong new China”, and consented to convene a Political Consultative Conference. However, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on two fundamental issues: the people’s armed forces and political power in the liberated areas.

Mao Zedong returned to Yan’an on October 11. On October 17, he delivered a report on the Chongqing Negotiations at a cadre meeting in Yan’an, pointing out that for the Chinese revolution, “the prospects are bright, yet the road ahead is tortuous.”

Mao Zedong crushed the military attack of the Kuomintang

Shortly after the signing of the Double Tenth Agreement, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 1.1 million Kuomintang troops to launch an offensive against the liberated areas in North China along three routes, plotting to seize passage into Northeast China and then occupy the entire region. The Communist Party of China took tit-for-tat countermeasures against the Kuomintang’s military assaults. The CPC Central Committee formulated the strategic guideline of “Develop to the North, Defend in the South”, dispatching 110,000 troops and 20,000 cadres to Northeast China in an effort to secure control of this strategically vital region. Meanwhile, military and civilian forces in all liberated areas put up resolute resistance to the Kuomintang’s armed incursions.

On December 28, 1945, Mao Zedong drafted the directive On Establishing Consolidated Base Areas in Northeast China. Thanks to the CPC’s persistent peace efforts and mediation by George Marshall, special envoy of the U.S. President, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to accept the CPC’s proposals, sign a truce agreement, and convene the Political Consultative Conference.

On January 10, 1946, CPC and Kuomintang government representatives formally signed an agreement to halt domestic armed conflicts; on the same day, both sides issued ceasefire orders. In April, Mao Zedong wrote the essay Some Estimates of the Current International Situation.

Mao Zedong's full-scale civil war broke out

On June 26, 1946, Kuomintang troops launched a large-scale assault on the Central Plains Liberated Area, marking the full outbreak of the civil war. On July 4, Mao Zedong made the strategic decision for the southern front field armies to “win several battles on the interior lines before shifting to exterior-line operations”. On July 20, he drafted the inner-Party directive Smash Chiang Kai-shek’s Offensive Through Self-Defense War.

On August 6, he met with American journalist Anna Louise Strong and put forward the famous thesis: “All reactionaries are paper tigers.” On September 16, he drafted the directive Concentrate Superior Forces to Annihilate the Enemy Troops One by One for the Central Military Commission of the CPC. On October 1, he drafted an inner-Party directive for the CPC Central Committee summarizing the experience gained in three months of warfare. On November 18, in an inner-Party directive drafted by him for the CPC Central Committee, the term the People’s War of Liberation was used for the first time.

Mao Zedong commanded the Northern Shaanxi Expedition

On March 18, 1947, Mao Zedong led the organs of the CPC Central Committee and the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army to evacuate Yan’an, embarking on a year-long mobile campaign across northern Shaanxi. From March to August, he directed the Northwest Field Army to win successive victories in the battles of Qinghuabian, Yangmahe, Panlong and Shajiadian, shattering the Kuomintang’s focused offensive against the liberated areas in northern Shaanxi.

From July 21 to 23, he presided over a meeting of the CPC Central Committee at Xiaohe Village in Jingbian County, northern Shaanxi, putting forward a vision that the struggle against Chiang Kai-shek could be resolved within five years (counting from July 1946). Around this time, he deployed three major army groups led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi and Su Yu, and Chen Xilian and Xie Fuzhi to cross the Yellow River and shift to strategic offensive operations.

In October, he drafted the Manifesto of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which put forward the rallying cry: “Overthrow Chiang Kai-shek and Liberate the Whole of China.” In November, he reprinted two documents drafted back in 1933, How to Differentiate Class Statuses and Decisions on Certain Questions in the Agrarian Struggle, for distribution to the entire Party to guide the sound development of land reform in the liberated areas.

From December 25 to 28, Mao presided over a meeting of the CPC Central Committee at Yangjiagou in Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi — later known as the December Conference. He submitted the written report The Present Situation and Our Tasks to the session, advancing the Ten Major Principles of Military Operations and the three general economic programmes for new democracy.

On January 18, 1948, he drafted a draft decision for the CPC Central Committee titled Several Important Questions Concerning Current Party Policies. On March 23, he concluded the mobile campaign in northern Shaanxi, crossed the Yellow River eastward, and headed for the liberated areas in North China.

Mao Zedong organized three major battles

On April 1, 1948, Mao Zedong delivered an important speech at the meeting of cadres of the Jin-Sui Border Region in Caijiaya Village, Xing County, Shanxi Province, elaborating the Party’s general line for the new democratic revolution and the general line for land reform.

From April 30 to May 7, he presided over the Enlarged Meeting of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee in Chengnanzhuang, Fuping County, Hebei Province, putting forward proposals such as shifting warfare to Kuomintang-ruled areas, expanding production, and tightening discipline.

On May 1, he wrote a letter to Li Jishen and Shen Junru, proposing that to form a democratic coalition government, a new Political Consultative Conference should first be convened.

On May 27, he arrived at Xibaipo Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province, the site of the Working Committee of the CPC Central Committee.

From September 8 to 13, he chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in Xibaipo and delivered an important report covering warfare, national founding, finance and economics, and other issues.

Between September 1948 and January 1949, he organized and directed the three decisive strategic campaigns: the Liaoxi-Shenyang Campaign, the Huai-Hai Campaign, and the Beiping-Tianjin Campaign, wiping out the main force of Kuomintang troops north of the Yangtze River.

On December 30, he wrote the 1949 New Year editorial Carry the Revolution Through to the End for Xinhua News Agency.

Mao Zedong's Peace Talks and the Crossing of the Yangtze River Campaign

In January 1949, Chiang Kai-shek issued a New Year Statement, proposing peace negotiations with the Communist Party of China on the precondition of preserving the so-called "Constitution", "legal system" and "National Army". On January 21, Chiang was forced to step down, and Li Zongren assumed the duties of Acting President. After taking office, Li issued orders to "release political prisoners", "restore the legal status of all political parties" and "lift bans on suspended newspapers", took the initiative to show goodwill to the CPC, and expressed willingness to conduct peace talks on the terms put forward by the CPC.

In March, Mao Zedong presided over the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, setting forth guiding principles and basic policies for shifting the Party’s work focus, securing nationwide victory, and building a new China. On March 25, Mao led the organs of the CPC Central Committee and the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army to move into Beiping.

On April 13, formal negotiations between CPC and Kuomintang representatives began in Beiping. On April 15, Zhou Enlai handed over the Final Amended Version of the Domestic Peace Agreement to the Kuomintang government delegation headed by Zhang Zhizhong, demanding the Nanjing authorities state their position before the 20th. The Kuomintang delegation unanimously agreed to accept the peace agreement and sent representatives to deliver it back to Nanjing. On April 20, the Kuomintang government refused to sign the agreement, and the peace talks collapsed.

On April 21, as the Nanjing government rejected the Domestic Peace Agreement, Mao Zedong and Zhu De jointly issued the Order to Advance to All Parts of the Country. On the same day, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army launched the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign. A million troops crossed the Yangtze River along three routes, completely smashing the Kuomintang’s long-crafted defense line along the river.

On April 23, the People’s Liberation Army captured Nanjing, and Mao Zedong composed the seven-character regulated poem The PLA Captures Nanjing.

Mao Zedong attends the New Political Consultative Conference

From June 15 to 19, 1949, Mao Zedong attended the First Plenary Session of the Preparatory Committee for the New Political Consultative Conference and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. On June 30, he published the essay On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.

On July 4, he sent a reply telegram to Cheng Qian, expressing approval of Cheng’s propositions to oppose Chiang Kai-shek and the Guangxi warlord clique and resolve the HuNan issue peacefully, and making arrangements for relevant matters.

From September 21 to 30, he took part in the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, delivered the opening speech, and was elected Chairman of the Central People’s Government. The session adopted the Common Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, whose drafting was presided over by Zhou Enlai and repeatedly reviewed and revised by Mao Zedong.

Mao Zedong and the Establishment of New China

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China was founded, and Mao Zedong presided over the Founding Ceremony of the People’s Republic. On December 5, he issued the Directive on the PLA’s Participation in Production and Construction Work in 1950. On December 16, he arrived in Moscow for his first visit to the Soviet Union. From December 1949 to early 1950, he made concrete arrangements for the peaceful liberation of Xizang.

On February 14, 1950, China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. From June 6 to 9, Mao presided over the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, submitting the written report Fight for a Fundamental Turn for the Better in the Nation's Financial and Economic Situation and delivering the speech Don’t Hit Out in All Directions. On June 28, he chaired the 8th Session of the Central People’s Government Council, which adopted the Land Reform Law of the People’s Republic of China. After October 1950, he initiated and led the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries.

Mao Zedong's War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea

In June 1950, the Korean War broke out, and the United States immediately intervened militarily. U.S. troops advanced into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and subsequently posed a grave threat to northeastern China.

In early October, Mao Zedong presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and made the strategic decision to resist U.S. aggressors and aid Korea to defend the motherland. On October 8, he issued an order to form the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (CPV), commanding the Volunteer Army to march into Korea at once to assist the Korean people, and appointing Peng Dehuai as its Commander-in-Chief and Political Commissar. Later, he personally directed the First, Second and Third Campaigns of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

Mao Zedong Promotes National Construction

In February 1951, Mao Zedong put forward the thinking of "three years of preparation and ten years of planned economic construction" at the Enlarged Session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. On May 20, his article We Must Attach Importance to the Discussion on the Film The Story of Wu Xun was published as an editorial in the People’s Daily. On May 24, he hosted a banquet to celebrate the signing of the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Xizang. With this, the entire Chinese mainland was liberated. In September, he presided over the formulation of the Draft Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Mutual Aid and Cooperation in Agricultural Production. On October 12, Volume One of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong was published and distributed, followed by Volume Two in April 1952 and Volume Three in April 1953. In December, he launched the Three-Anti Campaign against corruption, waste and bureaucracy.

In January 1952, Mao Zedong presided over the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which adopted the Decision on Launching a Study Campaign for Ideological Remoulding Among People from All Circles. On January 26, he drafted a CPC Central Committee directive on launching the Five-Anti Campaign — opposing bribery, tax evasion, theft and fraud of state property, shoddy work and material skimping, and theft and leakage of state economic intelligence. On April 6, he drafted the Directive of the CPC Central Committee on the Guidelines for Work in Xizang. On August 9, he issued the Programme for the Implementation of Regional Ethnic Autonomy of the People’s Republic of China. In September, he began to deliberate and formulate the General Line for the Transition Period.

On January 13, 1953, the Committee for Drafting the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was established with Mao Zedong as its Chairman. On March 26, he drafted a CPC Central Committee directive opposing Han chauvinism. On June 15, he delivered a speech at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, giving a relatively complete elaboration on the Party’s General Line for the Transition Period. On July 27, the Korean Armistice Agreement was formally signed at Panmunjom. On September 7, he held talks with representatives of democratic parties and industrial and commercial circles, pointing out that state capitalism was an inevitable path for the socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce. On October 15 and November 4, he held two conversations with leading cadres of the Rural Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, stressing that rural work departments at all levels should regard mutual aid and cooperation as an extremely important task.

In January 1954, Mao Zedong presided over the drafting of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in Hangzhou. On March 23, he chaired the first meeting of the Constitution Drafting Committee and put forward the first draft of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. From September 15 to 28, he attended the First Session of the First National People’s Congress, delivered the opening speech Strive to Build a Great Socialist Country, and was elected Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. On September 28, the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee was formed, with Mao as its Chairman. On October 16, he wrote the Letter on the Study of A Dream of Red Mansions to the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and relevant leading comrades. On October 19, during talks with Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, he proposed that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence should be applied to state-to-state relations of all countries.

On January 15, 1955, Mao Zedong instructed Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping: "We must launch a thorough criticism of Hu Feng’s bourgeois idealism and anti-Party, anti-people literary and artistic thinking." In March, he delivered the opening speech and concluding remarks at the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, calling on cadres to delve into issues of socialist industrialization and become experts in this field. On May 12, he set forth the guidelines for the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries at a Supreme State Conference. On June 9, he inscribed for the Monument to the People’s Heroes at Tiananmen Square: "Eternal glory to the people’s heroes". On July 31, he delivered the report On the Question of Agricultural Cooperation at a conference of secretaries of provincial, municipal and autonomous regional Party committees convened by the CPC Central Committee. From September to December, he presided over the compilation of the book The Socialist Upsurge in China’s Countryside, writing two prefaces and 104 editorial notes. From October 4 to 11, he chaired the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, which adopted the Resolution on the Question of Agricultural Cooperation. On October 29, he invited executive committee members of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce to hold a forum on the socialist transformation of private industry and commerce. On December 16, he revised the draft central directive on intellectual affairs, proposing to train large numbers of intellectuals and pay attention to recruiting senior intellectuals into the Party.

Mao Zedong passed away

On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong passed away in Beijing at the age of 83.

Mao Zedong's main works

Mao Zedong’s major writings are collected in Selected Works of Mao Zedong. Other officially published works include Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Military Writings of Mao Zedong, Selected Letters of Mao Zedong, Collected Rural Investigations of Mao Zedong, Selected Journalistic Writings of Mao Zedong, and Poems of Mao Zedong.

Mao Zedong's Character Relationships

Mao Zedong's historical contributions

1.Leading the Chinese people through protracted revolutionary struggles, Mao Zedong eventually secured national independence and the liberation of the people, and founded the People’s Republic of China.

2.He guided the Chinese people onto the path of socialist construction.

3.He ushered in a new era where the people are masters of the country, and initiated arduous and tortuous explorations to realize socialist democracy.

4.He laid the foundation for the CPC’s governing status and made unremitting efforts to explore ways to preserve the advanced nature and ruling position of a Marxist political party.

5.He established China’s status as a major country on the international stage and strove tirelessly to forge an independent foreign policy of peace.

Mao Zedong's Character Evaluation

Comrade Mao Zedong was a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist, and theoretician, a great pioneer in the sinicization of Marxism, a great founder of China's socialist modernization construction, a great patriot and national hero in modern China, the core of the first generation of central leadership collective of the Party, a great leader who led the Chinese people to completely change their destiny and national appearance, and a great internationalist who made significant contributions to the liberation of oppressed nations in the world and the cause of human progress.

In the era when Comrade Mao Zedong was born, due to the invasion of Western powers and the corruption of feudal rule, China, which had a civilization history of more than 5000 years, gradually became a semi colonial and semi feudal society. The country suffered humiliation, the people suffered difficulties, and civilization was covered in dust. The Chinese nation suffered unprecedented disasters, and saving the country and revitalizing China became the common dream of all Chinese people. After the CPC stepped onto the stage of history, it united and led the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country in a great struggle against foreign invasion, national oppression and class oppression. In this magnificent and great struggle that concerns the survival of the country and the liberation of the nation, batches of people's heroes and the backbone of the nation have emerged. Comrade Mao Zedong is an outstanding representative and a great figure among them.

In his youth, Comrade Mao Zedong set a lofty aspiration to save the nation from danger and devoted himself to the great cause of saving the country and the people, with the lofty spirit of "having confidence in life for two hundred years and being able to withstand the impact of water for three thousand miles". In order to find a way out for China, Comrade Mao Zedong "explored the source of the great foundation" and, through repeated comparisons and distinctions, resolutely chose Marxism Leninism and the lofty ideal of striving for the realization of communism. From then on, he pursued it throughout his life and remained steadfast.

Comrade Mao Zedong's life was a life of unremitting struggle for the prosperity and strength of the country, the rejuvenation of the nation, and the happiness of the people. During the new democratic revolution, the CPC, with Comrade Mao Zedong as the main representative, united and led the people, fought hard and indomitably, defeated Japanese imperialism, overthrew the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, completed the new democratic revolution, established the People's Republic of China, and achieved the national independence and people's ownership of the country that the Chinese people have dreamed of since modern times. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we united and led the people to self-reliance and strive for strength, carried out socialist revolution, eliminated the feudal exploitation and oppression system that had lasted for thousands of years, established the basic socialist system, promoted socialist construction, and achieved the most extensive and profound social change in the history of the Chinese nation. We achieved great achievements in socialist construction, making China a major country with important influence in the world and accumulating important experience in socialist construction in a country with a very backward level of social productivity like China.

In the decades of difficult and glorious combat career, Comrade Mao Zedong has made indelible historical contributions to the Chinese nation and the Chinese people, and has made glorious historical contributions for generations to come.

Comrade Mao Zedong led the people to create the historical process of sinicization of Marxism. Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary practice. The basic principles of Marxism have universal applicability, and only by combining them with the realities of various countries can they demonstrate their powerful power of truth. Comrade Mao Zedong said, "The great power of Marxism Leninism is that it is linked to the specific revolutionary practice of each country. For the CPC, it is necessary to learn to apply the theory of Marxism Leninism to the specific environment of China." Comrade Mao Zedong attached great importance to and always insisted on solving China's actual problems with the basic principles of Marxism, created Mao Zedong Thought in the process of fighting against various wrong tendencies and profoundly summarizing China's revolutionary experience, and enriched and developed Mao Zedong Thought in the practice of exploring the path of socialist construction suitable for China's national conditions. Mao Zedong Thought is the creative application and development of Marxism Leninism in China. It is a proven correct theoretical principle and experience summary about the Chinese revolution and construction, achieving the first historic leap in the sinicization of Marxism. Comrade Mao Zedong applied dialectical materialism and historical materialism to all the work of the proletarian party, and formed a stand, viewpoint, and method with distinctive characteristics of the CPC in the long and arduous struggle of the Chinese revolution and construction, which is reflected in three basic aspects: seeking truth from facts, the mass line, and independence. This is the living soul of Mao Zedong Thought. Mao Zedong Thought is a precious spiritual wealth of our party, which will guide our actions for a long time. Comrade Mao Zedong's great practice of using the "arrow" of Marxism to target the specific reality of China has provided us with a glorious example for correctly treating Marxism and continuously promoting the sinicization and modernization of Marxism.

Comrade Mao Zedong led the people to forge a great, glorious and correct CPC. The Chinese revolution and construction must be led by an advanced political party. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "Without the efforts of the CPC and the CPC people as the mainstay of the Chinese people, China's independence and liberation are impossible, and China's industrialization and agricultural modernization are also impossible." Comrade Mao Zedong was one of the first batch of leaders to establish local party organizations, participated in a party conference, and led the construction of the Red Army and the Party in the base areas during the Jinggangshan struggle. He clearly proposed to promote Party building as a "great project" and successfully led the implementation of this great project. Comrade Mao Zedong is the founder of our party's theory of party building. He scientifically expounded for the first time in the history of Marxist political parties the relationship between party building and the party's political line, revealed the basic laws of party building, and pointed out the direction for strengthening party building; Emphasis was placed on building the Party ideologically, creating a form of rectification through criticism and self-criticism for ideological education; Creatively applying the principle of democratic centralism to correctly handle intra party relations and maintain the unity and solidarity of the Party; The summary has formed the "three major styles" of the Party, which has become a significant symbol that the CPC is different from any other political party; In exploring the profound thinking of breaking out of historical cycles, the first answer is given, which is "letting the people supervise the government", and so on. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Comrade Mao Zedong actively explored the laws of building the ruling party, emphasizing the need to always maintain a humble and cautious style, guard against arrogance and impatience, and work hard. He was highly vigilant and focused on preventing the corruption and degeneration of party members and cadres, resolutely punishing corruption, and so on, accumulating preliminary experience in party building under the conditions of governance. The CPC, created by Comrade Mao Zedong himself, has been maturing through revolutionary forging, always taking the lead in the times, becoming the backbone of the people of the country and the strong core of leadership in China's revolution, construction and reform.

Comrade Mao Zedong led the people to establish a new China where the people were the masters of the country. Seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation is the original aspiration and mission of our party. Since its establishment, our party has been committed to building a new society where the people are the masters of the country. Comrade Mao Zedong emphasized, "We are the people's democratic dictatorship, and the word 'people' should be added to all levels of government, and the word 'people' should be added to all political organs." The establishment of New China achieved a great leap towards a people's democratic system, and the Chinese people, who have taken control of their own destiny, participated in the management of national affairs, economic, cultural, and social affairs through various means. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "Once the fate of China is in the hands of the people themselves, China will shine like the sun rising in the east, illuminating the earth with its glorious flames, quickly cleansing the dirt and mud left by the reactionary government, healing the wounds of war, and building a new and strong People's Republic worthy of its name." Under the leadership of the Party, the newly established people's political power will achieve and consolidate the great unity of all ethnic groups in the country, and achieve and consolidate the great unity of workers, farmers, intellectuals, and other people from all walks of life. Vigorously promoting economic development, striving to change the backward situation of poverty and backwardness, and effectively ensuring the basic living needs of the people; Continuously developing socialist culture and improving the ideological, moral, scientific, and cultural qualities of the people; We have established and developed a powerful national defense force, including the "Two Bombs and One Satellite", completely ending the history of old China being repeatedly invaded by foreign enemies. Our national defense force is at the forefront of the world; Adhering to an independent and peaceful foreign policy, firmly upholding the dignity of national independence and sovereignty, and completely ending the humiliating diplomacy of old China, China stands tall in the East of the world as an independent and fully sovereign country. The ancient China has been replaced by the people, and the Chinese people are proud. The international status of New China is increasingly elevated.

Comrade Mao Zedong led the people to create an advanced socialist system. Only socialism can save China and develop China. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out that "the establishment of the socialist system has opened up a path for us to reach the ideal state." During the Central Soviet Area and Yan'an period, Comrade Mao Zedong conducted extensive theoretical and practical explorations to establish the system of people's democracy. After the founding of New China, Comrade Mao Zedong led the formulation of the Common Programme of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, which defined the state system, regime and structure of our country, established the organizational system of the state power of New China, established the system of people's congresses, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, and the system of regional ethnic autonomy. In 1956, China basically completed the socialist transformation of private ownership of the means of production, basically achieved public ownership of the means of production and distribution according to work, and established a socialist economic system. In the process of carrying out large-scale socialist construction, specific systems for socialist science and technology, education, culture, medical and health care have also been explored and established. The socialist system established under the leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong, rooted in the land of China, in line with China's national conditions, and reflecting the wishes of the people, has unparalleled superiority. It has not only played an important role in promoting socialist revolution and construction, but also laid the fundamental political premise and institutional foundation for all development and progress in contemporary China.

Comrade Mao Zedong led the people to create a new type of invincible people's army. Without a people's army, there is nothing for the people. Comrade Mao Zedong was the first to propose and lead the work of armed struggle and the establishment of the people's army. In the arduous revolutionary war, he systematically solved the problem of how to build a new type of people's army with proletarian nature, strict discipline, and close ties with the people, with farmers as the main component of the revolutionary army. He established the sole purpose of the people's army to serve the people wholeheartedly, set the principle of the Party commanding the gun, established the principle of political building the army, formulated the three major disciplines and eight points of attention, implemented the three major democracies of politics, economy, and military, implemented the principles of unity between officers and soldiers, unity between military and civilians, and disintegration of the enemy, formed a set of guidelines and methods for political work of the people's army, systematically proposed the idea of building the people's army, formulated a series of strategies and tactics for the people's war, and provided fundamental guidance for the people's army to defeat exceptionally vicious enemies at home and abroad and win the victory of the Chinese revolution. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Comrade Mao Zedong deeply explored the new characteristics and laws of the construction of the people's army, put forward the important guiding ideology of strengthening national defense, building modern revolutionary armed forces, and developing modern national defense technology, which provided a strong backing for consolidating the new people's political power, establishing China's great power status, and safeguarding the dignity of the Chinese nation. The people's army, personally created by Comrade Mao Zedong, has become an armed force loyal to the Party and faithfully carrying out revolutionary political tasks. It has become a complete and thorough soldier fighting for the Chinese people, and is a strong pillar to ensure national independence, people's happiness, and national defense consolidation.

Comrade Mao Zedong devoted his life to the Party and the people, leaving behind a noble spirit and demeanor that will forever be remembered by future generations. Comrade Mao Zedong demonstrated a great revolutionary leader with a far sighted political vision, unwavering revolutionary beliefs, extraordinary courage to explore, superb struggle skills, outstanding leadership abilities, a patriotic sentiment towards the people, an open and broad mind, and a fine style of hard work and struggle. He has won the love and admiration of the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups in the country. Comrade Mao Zedong's noble spirit and style will always be a powerful driving force for us to continue moving forward.

Although Mao Zedong made serious mistakes in his later years, his undeniable contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweighed his mistakes throughout his life. His achievements came first, and his mistakes came second. He is still revered by the Chinese people. Five years after his death, the CPC made a comprehensive evaluation of all his revolutionary activities and ideas in the form of resolutions of the Central Committee. As the development of Marxism in China, Mao Zedong Thought is still the guiding ideology of the CPC.